Raise those glasses, people. Monarch Cocktail Bar & Lounge can now call themselves “nationally acclaimed.” Seems the high-end drinkery was just named Cocktail Bar of the Year by Nightclub & Bar Magazine. It’s quite the feather in their cap. The Monarch team also received the prestigious BevX (Beverage Excellence) for Best Innovative Beverage Program from Cheers Magazine. It’s a rare double whammy-win and quite the achievement for Monarch’s bar director extraordinaire Brock Schulte. He gives the props and kudos right back to his bartenders who share the honor. “I am super proud of our staff right now and how hard they work as a team,” he says.
Out of the 60+ cocktails they feature, was there one drink that really clinched the win? According to Schulte, the answer is no, but he does have one cocktail you absolutely must try when you visit. “I would have to go to the Louisiana Purchase. It is essentially a Brooklyn or Manhattanesque-style cocktail that uses our personal barrel of Jefferson’s Ocean, house-made Amer-Picon, Infinity vermouth, and salted cardamom ‘iron’ bitters,” he says. “It’s a true experience cocktail. We serve it in a liquid-nitrogen chilled-rocks glass and freeze the undiluted cocktail so it’s super viscous. The bitters are prayed on top table-side so the aroma stays with you the entire time you’re indulging.”